Once I Rose Above
by TheFreakWithTheWings
Summary: Buffy jumped into Glory's portal and landed in a desert.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy or the Dresden Files, sadly.

-‹◊›-

Buffy kissed Dawn on the cheek, knowing it would be the last time she saw her sister alive.

"Be brave. Live. For me." she told Dawn, ignoring the tears that streamed down her sister's face.

Buffy felt as if she should be in turmoil because, after all, she was about to die for the second and final time. But this was always about the blood. Summer's blood. And her death was the only gift she could give to her loved ones now. Her mind was clear of everything except her purpose as she ran to the edge of the platform and dove into the portal.

The magical lightning that played over her body was excruciatingly painful, but the pain was soon over as her soul swiftly departed.

Buffy's body thumped into a pile of rubble, and her friends and fellow world savers gathered around it to grieve the loss of their loved one. They had defeated Glory, but at a terrible cost.

They couldn't find words to express how much she meant to them, so when they buried her, they kept it simple: She saved the world. A lot.

And then they tried to return to their lives, despite the gaping hole Buffy's death had left, yet they couldn't.

However, this story is not about the ones who were left behind; it is about a girl, a Chosen One, who will bring hope to a world in desperate need of it.

-‹◊›-

Buffy woke up in pain.

Obviously, everything she had heard about the afterlife was a lie. Either that, or she wasn't dead. Which shouldn't be possible, considering that she had jumped into the big ol' Portal of Doom. Going by the surprising amount of pain she was experiencing, she was going to go with option number two: she was still alive. Yay.

She rolled over and pushed herself to her feet with a groan, almost wishing that she actually was dead. She slumped back to the ground and blacked out from the pain, and when she came to, the sun was shining right into her eyes.

The pain from the energies in the portal had faded, thanks to her slayer healing, and so she sat up, noticing for the first time that she had landed in a desert. The first slayer's desert. It looked exactly as it had the last two times she had seen it, right down to the mud painted figure crouching in front of her.

Buffy blinked a few times to allow her eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness and to make sure she wasn't hallucinating.

Nope. Sineya was still there.

"Are you here to chop down my trees?" Buffy asked, rubbing her head. If the First Slayer was gonna try to kill her friends again, she wanted to be ready.

"No. We must hurry," the First Slayer said as she pulled Buffy to her feet. "They will have sensed your arrival and will soon start looking for you."

Buffy wrenched her hand away and took a step back. "Who? And why should I trust you in the first place?"

The First Slayer bared her teeth in frustration. "There is no time. They are here."

Buffy looked around warily, but she couldn't see anything. She turned back to Sineya to see that she had taken advantage of her inattention to run at Buffy in an attempt to do… something. Buffy settled back into a defensive stance, a witty quip on her tongue, but the First Slayer simply leaped at her and disappeared.

She spun in a slow circle, looking for where the First Slayer might have gone. She didn't see her, but she did see what looked like a wall in the distance. It was the only landmark in sight, so she began to head towards it.

-‹◊›-

Buffy had been walking for longer than she cared to count, and the gate hadn't gotten any bigger. She hadn't gotten tired either. If anything, she was stronger than she had ever been. She felt almost like she could have taken on Glory and come out on top.

Other things had shown up as she walked though, and they were undoubtedly inhuman. It was painful to look at them because they had too many eyes, limbs, claws, teeth. They were just a little bit out of sync with reality.

It didn't mean she couldn't kill them.

The first one to come at her had too many tentacles and it was dripping with acid. To the surprise of both, the acid burns healed almost immediately. At least, Buffy thought the tentacle monster was surprised. It was a little hard to tell due to its lack of anything resembling a face.

"Well that wasn't very nice." she said.

The tentacle demon burbled and flailed in her general direction.

Buffy wished she had a sword, or maybe a spear. Something that would let her kill the demon without getting in range of its tentacles. However, there was nothing that could even remotely be used as a weapon, unless the monster was allergic to sand.

So, she turned and ran towards the gate.

It ended up being a good choice because whatever the First Slayer had done to her hadn't only upgraded her healing. She was now faster than she had even known was possible.

As she ran, more and more uber demons began following her. Not all of them were as slow as the tentacle monster, but none of them were fast enough to catch her.

The landscape began to change. The temperature dropped, and white stones began to show up, scattered at first, but more numerous the closer to the gate she got. Then she tripped over one, and the grinning face of a skull stared back at her. The ground was littered with bones.

Her stomach rolled, and she almost lost what little food was in her stomach to begin with. But then she saw the demons behind her, gaining ground with each second she lay there. So, Buffy picked herself up and continued running.

Before long, the ground disappeared under the sheer number of bones. The good news was that she was getting closer to the gate. The bad news was that a giant mass of the demons was in front of her. She really needed a weapon of some kind.

-‹◊›-

Buffy wiped demon gunk from her forehead and flung it away, her face crinkled with disgust.

Whatever Sineya had done to her had increased her strength by at least ten times, and she had used her newfound strength to rip apart the first few demons that had come after her. Then she had gotten lucky, and a spiny demon came after her. The three-foot long bone spine that she broke off of it made for an excellent weapon. She would have named it Mr. Spiky, but it reminded her too much of the bleached blond menace.

Her brief respite from battle was soon ended when a furry demon with at least five horns on its head charged at her, and so she leaped back into the fray.

Her focus narrowed as she danced with death; slashing, hacking, and stabbing the demons. There were too many of them for her to take on at once, so when they fell, Buffy couldn't make sure that they were truly dead before another one occupied her attention. All she knew was the dance, and it was all that mattered.

She froze at the touch of cold metal against her neck.

A voice that sounded like the sound ice makes when it strikes ice said something in a lyrical language.

"Sorry, but I don't speak elf." Buffy said as she turned around, her hands in the air. The man with the sword looked like an elf, with blonde hair and pointy ears, and he definitely wasn't human if the tingling in her gut was anything to go by. There were four more elves with him, and they were all wearing a strange sort of armor that looked as if it had been carved out of black ice.

A cold expression slid onto Blondie's face. "You imitate a human well."

Buffy frowned. "Who's imitating? I'm one hundred percent human. No creepy demon girl here."

Blondie narrowed his eyes at her before he turned and spoke to one of his comrades in the lyrical language.

Buffy opened her mouth to complain about the sudden language switch, but a glare from Blondie had her reconsidering. She could probably take them, especially with the upgrade from the First Slayer, but they were the first thing even resembling people that she had seen since arriving in this dimension. Sineya didn't count.

One of the elves, a black haired one, suddenly picked her up and slung her over his shoulder, ignoring her cry of outrage, and the group of elves began running back to the gate. At first, Buffy was worried that they would be overwhelmed by demons, but they rounded a hill of bones and she could see an entire army of the elves. She would never admit it, but the constant fighting had been tiring, so she took the opportunity to rest and recover the energy she had lost.

"Where are we going?" Buffy whined, channeling Dawn.

The elves conversed in their lyrical language for a while, their tones growing angrier as time went on. Buffy wasn't stupid, she could tell they were arguing about her. If she had to guess, she would say that Blondie was suspicious of her and wanted to kill her while Blackie was curious and wanted to see what she knew.

Blackie appeared to have won the argument because he answered her. "We are taking you to see the Gatekeeper."


	2. Chapter 2

The Gatekeeper turned out to be a tall, skinny human wearing a hooded cloak with only one eye. The other eye had been replaced with what looked like metal. He had stepped out from the enormous gate to meet them.

The gate was easily taller than any of the skyscrapers she had seen in L.A. It had looked like a normal gate in any old fence when she had first arrived in this dimension. She didn't even want to contemplate how far she had come or the damage it had done to her shoes.

Buffy had been preparing to confront a more powerful version of the elves, or even another uber demon, so the fact that the elves obviously deferred to him made her nervous. Demons were typically only afraid of people with a lot of power, like the Mayor. Or Willow. Maybe the Gatekeeper was just really powerful like Willow, and he used his power for good. And maybe she would walk through the gate to find a shopping mall on the other side.

Blackie had dumped her on the ground, which prompted an annoyed "Hey!" from her.

The Gatekeeper began talking with the elves in the same lyrical language while Buffy picked herself up from the ground. There weren't any uber demons nearby, but the elves had taken her bone spine away when they had captured her. She would need to be aware of her surroundings.

Buffy brushed bone dust from her pants then crossed her arms across her chest while she waited for them to acknowledge her. She sighed and began tapping her foot against the ground. There were so many bones. The elves' fight with the uber demons must have been going on for thousands of years, if the sheer number of bones was anything to go by. And the elves hadn't been fighting alone either, unless they were hiding five-foot long bones, like the one by Buffy's foot, somewhere.

While staring at the giant bone, Buffy was struck with an idea. It was a really obvious one too; she was mentally kicking herself for not thinking of it earlier. The elves had taken the spine she was using as a weapon, but if they left her out here, or tried to attack her, she could easily use one of the countless bones that dominated the landscape to defend herself.

"Stupid Buffy," she muttered. "Way to miss the obvious."

"Would that be your name then?" the Gatekeeper asked, startling her with his sudden switch to English. She had thought he could only speak the same language as the elves, but she was definitely wrong on that count. His accent sounded a little like Giles', and Buffy was struck with a sudden longing to be back in Sunnydale.

Hopefully her friends would realize she wasn't dead yet and bring her back soon. Willow was becoming a really strong witch and Giles could make with the research, and then she could go home. Time worked differently between dimensions, and she could be here for a long time. For now she would have to work on staying alive, and that meant appeasing the natives.

So she gave the Gatekeeper her best blank cheerleader smile and said. "Summers. Buffy Summers." And she had accidentally ended up channeling Xander and making a Bond reference. Damn. Well, on the bright side, if he recognized the reference, then they probably had more to this dimension than just deserts, demons, and bones.

He raised an eyebrow at her. "I've never heard of a human named Buffy."

She dropped the Valley girl act and glared at him. "My mother gave me that name."

His lips quirked at the corners of his mouth. "I've never heard of an Outsider who watched James Bond movies."

Uh oh. Outsider was probably what they called the uber demons. "Who's an Outsider? Definitely not me. I'm something that's the opposite of an Outsider. In fact, I'm an Insider. And now I'm starting to babble. Shutting up now."

Blondie rolled his eyes and said something to the Gatekeeper in the lyrical language. He nodded at the elf and replied in the same language. Buffy really wished they would stop talking in it because they could obviously speak English.

"We must determine for ourselves that you are human if you are to pass through the Gate." the Gatekeeper said.

Buffy shrugged. "What do you need me to do?" If they asked for anything she was uncomfortable with, she could always run away.

"Look into my eyes."

The Gatekeeper didn't feel like a demon, and he probably couldn't ensnare her with his gaze a la Dracula. His request seemed reasonable, so she looked into his eyes. Nothing happened until she had held them for a moment, after which the world exploded into a maelstrom of colors.

The predominant colors were black, purple, blue, and gold, but they were somehow more than that. The black was soft, kind, and solid like sleep, a blurred mass that made up a large portion of what she could see. It was an unwavering, uncompromising color. The purple was twisted and seemed to be entwined with the other three colors, and it radiated smug satisfaction, similar to a cat. The blue was a radiant shade that was deep and endless, but it was at the lighter end of the spectrum, like the sky on a cloudless day. The gold was sharp and protective. More than anything, it reminded her of a set of carefully crafted armor. She had never actually worn armor, but in one of the dreams she had of past Slayers before she was Called the Slayer had worn armor. All together, the colors were beautiful, and Buffy could feel tears begin to slide down her cheeks. She blinked, and the colors were gone.

She hurriedly wiped the tears from her face, and her mind was forcibly returned to the present. Who knows what the elves could have done while she was distracted by the pretty colors?

She was shocked to see that the Gatekeeper was crying as well. Well, if a single tear could be counted as crying. What had he seen?

He inclined his head in her direction when he noticed her scrutiny, a gesture of respect from one warrior to another. She nodded back.

"Well?" Blondie asked, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword. "What is she?"

Buffy could tell that he was hoping for a negative verdict so that he could kill her.

"Ms. Summers is human, and she is deserving of our respect. If she desires to go through the Gate, we will let her." the Gatekeeper calmly replied.

"Darn, I _really _wanted to stay out here with the creepy Outsiders." Buffy snarked.

"You heard her, she wishes to remain in the Outside." Blondie said.

"It's called sarcasm, Blondie, although I can see why you might have missed it." Buffy said.

Blondie growled and pulled his sword out a few inches.

Buffy laughed. Blondie had about the same level of witty quips as Sunnydale's villain of the week. That is to say, none.

The Gatekeeper seemed to be amused, if the slight quirk at the corner of his mouth was any indication. She got the feeling that he was used to hiding his emotions, and if he didn't want her to know he was amused, she wouldn't have.

"Shall we go through the Gate?" Blackie asked, breaking up the one-sided banter she had going on with Blondie.

The Gatekeeper laid his hand against a portion of the Gate that was level with his chest and pushed. It swung open like, well, a gate. He gestured for Buffy to go first, and so she stepped through the small opening in the enormous Gate and promptly tripped on something.

Before she hit the ground, though, a feeling akin to a punch in the gut had her gasping for breath. A pounding began to build up in the back of her head, and she closed her eyes and doubled over.

When the pain finally abated, she opened her eyes to find that she was in the middle of a ghost town that, from the temperature, was in the middle of a desert. Great. Why did it always have to be deserts?


End file.
